Bronx, NY —The NY Yankees had to get real creative the last few weeks when manufacturing runs since their Bronx slugger Aaron Judge has been out of the lineup since June 3rd chasing down a fly ball in the Los Angeles series.
Every series it seems like their is someone stepping up and being the man of the hour to get the Bronx Bombers over the hump.
Harrison Bader blast a tiebreaking three-run home run in the eighth inning for the Bombers who rallied for a 6-3 victory Monday night over the second place Baltimore Orioles in front of an announced sell-out crowd of 46,015 at Yankee Stadium.
The second-place Orioles lost for the fifth time in six contests and are three games ahead of third-place Bombers in the American East Division standings.
Starting pitcher Domingo Germán coming off the fourth perfect game in team history at Oakland last week didn’t have his best stuff on the night, Germán allowed three runs — two earned — and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. He threw 32 curveballs but it didn’t have the same bite that it had against the Athletics. He left too many pitches over the heart of the plate and got hit pretty hard in the 2nd and 3rd innings.
Germán got a nice hand from the crowd when he walked out to the bullpen for warm ups and received a loud ovation when he was relieved. Between innings, clips of his perfect game played on the v-board.
“It meant a lot,” Germán said through a translator. “It was good to see all the fans showing support like that.”
Yankees pitchers have posted a 3.69 ERA this season, the fourth-lowest ERA in MLB, trailing only Houston (3.57), Minnesota (3.60) and Atlanta (3.66).
Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka got the Yankees on the scoreboard with their back to-back homers in the fifth to start the initial comeback. before Volpe scored on a headfirst slide in the seventh.
Volpe worked his magic again and scored the tying run in the seventh on a wild pitch by reliever Yennier Cano (1-1) and it was downhill the O’s after that.
Giancarlo Stanton started the eighth with a single off Cano, and Anthony Rizzo followed with a single against Danny Coulombe to right.
After showing bunt on the first pitch at the dish, Bader drove a 1-1 belt high curve into the left-field seats for his seventh homer off of Tyler Wells.
Wells allowed two runs and five hits in six innings.
“I was only going to play it for one pitch probably there and then he did the rest,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Got a hanger and did good things with a hanger.”
Bader flipped his bat and yelled into the dugout to celebrate the 415-foot drive as he rounded first base.
“It was cool,” he said. “The Bronx showed up tonight with the energy and we’re right in the middle of the season, right in the thick of it. So to get a win for them is great. I just wanted to round the bases, go back to my team and play defense and finish that game off.”
Baltimore had 12 hits, matching its total from a three-game series against Minnesota, but also struck out 11 times.
Tommy Kahnle (1-0) stranded former Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks in the eighth to keep the game knotted. Clay Holmes two in a 1-2-3 ninth for his 10th save, capping 4 2/3 scoreless innings from the Bombers bullpen, which lowered its major league-best ERA to 2.83.
Cedric Mullins got a run-scoring bloop single and Ryan O’Hearn hit an RBI single as the Orioles opened a 3-0 lead through three innings against Domingo Germán but the Bombers closed them out after that.
“We had 12 hits and only scored three runs,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We had multiple opportunities to extend the lead a few times and that’s disappointing, but they just beat us with homers tonight.”
HAMLIN KICKS OFF HOPE WEEK:
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who was resuscitated with CPR in a game against Cincinnati on Jan. 2 and cleared in April to resume football activities, was honored as the Yankees began their 14th annual HOPE Week events.
Earlier in the day, Hamlin participated in CPR training with several Yankees. Wearing a Babe Ruth jersey, Hamlin threw out the ceremonial first pitch along with former Fordham softball player Sarah Taffet and both participated in the exchange of lineup cards. Like Hamlin, Taffet was also resuscitated during a game in October 2021.
Injury Report:
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (left rotator cuff strain) threw his second bullpen since going on the injured list June 8.
UP NEXT
Baltimore RHP Kyle Gibson (8-5, 4.66 ERA) opposes Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt (3-6, 4.37) for the second time this season Tuesday afternoon.
